I started really making an effort to stick to my budget in November. Today I was working on it and totaled up our balances due on everything but the mortgage and realized I had paid close to $3000.00 off my debt in a month. It's no where near being gone but it's a good start and I'm psyched about it. Now with my brother starting payment on the trailer and land I'll really be able to see results. I pulled my credit reports two weeks ago and saw a bill that I had forgotten about from 3 years ago. It was only 120.00 but it was negative on my reports. I am happy to say that I paid that off tonight! The agency said they will update my report within the week to say it is paid in full. It's not much but it will definately help my score. Sticking to my budget will get everything paid off in two years not counting my brother's payments. With my brother's payments I can be out of debt except my mortgage in a year. I am still budgeting as if he's not paying us so that I can just throw that money at debt and savings and not become dependent on it for other things. It's like a big old weight has been sitting on me and somebody lifted up just a little so I can take a breath. I can't wait until it's gone and I can breathe freely.

I was talking to my mom about wanting to be debt free and being tired of living paycheck to paycheck. I told her how hard it is sticking to a budget and how I wished digging myself out of this hole would go faster. She looked at me and said why don't you sell your trailer and land? Ummm duh!
Before we bought our house 3 years ago we lived in a town about 20 miles from here. I had bought a half acre piece of land and a mobile home when I was 18 and lived there until we moved in the house. Well when we moved my brother was having financial problems so I let him and his girlfriend move into the trailer for barely any rent. He has since gone to Iraq as a contractor and gotten himself out of debt and also broken it off with his girlfriend. She is still living in the trailer with her son. I never really thought of putting the place up for sale and giving her notice until my mom brought it up. If I sold the land I could have enough to pay off everything but our cars and mortgage and still put a big chunk into savings. We bought a For Sale by owner sign this week and I talked to my bro's ex and she said that she was already looking for some place to live anyways. I hope it sells quickly but if it doesn't it'll be okay since it's not really costing anything but taxes and insurance right now anyways. That's only 200.00/yr. I've had people inquire about it before but didn't sell because of my brother. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed and hope that it goes quickly.